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2019-02-02 - Malus Aforethought
The Raft is an Ultra-Maximum security prison for Superhumans, floating near the coast of Manhattan, anchored off the shore (A half mile out in the East River) to make escape more difficult. It has it's own power, walls of Omnium Steel, and guards wearing Guardsman armor designed by Tony Stark. It is designed with power neutralizers specific to the villain on every cell, plus a more general neutralizer over the area so that anyone who is OUT of their cell will generally still have no powers. The last time there was a major escape was when Electro drew in all the power on the whole island of Manhattan and the Raft as well, turning off the Dampers. That is the key to this escape plan. An EMP Device strong enough to black out the Raft is being tranported by one of Dr. Malus' creations, an amphibious creature called Cetus...the device was crafted by Malus' partner the Hobgoblin. It will give enough time for the person hired for the job to get in and get out with the two prisoners they want freed. Cetus swims to the anchor and follows it up to just the edge of the damping field, the places the EMP device with the emitter pointing upwards...no point in blacking out all of Manhattan if it is not required. Exactly on schedule the device goes off, blacking out the Raft and shutting down the Guardsmen (whose suits draw power from the Raft power grid, though they do have a short duration backup battery). Ten seconds later Sidewinder Appears in the cell holding The Blaze, "You boss paid for my escape insurance, so you are out of here." The dimension walking villain pulls Te Blaze into the Nth Dimension. Peter Parker is checking out the final diagnostics on the hip replacement rig. His SuperPhone is nearby, but he is looking at the screen of the fabricator. He smiles as the final diagnostic comes back green, then reaches for the phone to call Kara. The smile freezes on his face as the alert comes through. "Ah, jeez." One minute later, Spider-Man bursts through the trap door on the roof and hits the ledge thwipping his way towards the Raft. What a way to end an evening of good hard work. Suzy's at her place, snuggling with Flash on the couch as they watch TV, when the screen goes black and the house AI says, "My apologies, Ultra-Girl, but there is an alert for the Avengers, and all Avengers are either occupied or out of town. Protocols indicate that you are among the persons to contact should need arise." Suzy's on her feet immediately, the little nightie she was wearing morphing into her full Ultra-Girl costume even as she's getting off the couch, and out of Flash's arms. "Where at?", she asks. "The alert indicates a power outage at the Raft, a ocean penitentiary for superhumans", is the AI's response, and a map showing the Raft's location appears on the screen. "I have prepared an earbud comm-unit for you at the storage unit by the balcony door, Ultra-Girl. I will patch in other personnel to your frequency, as needed." Glancing down, apologetically to Flash as she floats up and over the sofa towards the balcony door, where she picks up the earbug, Ultra-Girl is on her way. When she's high enough over the city, she goes supersonic, the *crack* of her acceleration past the sound barrier audible in the city below. Flash was looking forward to a nice long night, maybe finishing the season of MIDSOMER MURDERS (Flash apparently liked British TV) when the alert came through. He sighed, but it was an inward sigh. He wasn't going to be That Guy and hold it against her. This was what she did. But when she left, he had a bad feeling about tonight. Something...ominous. "Nanny, I'd like one of those earbuds, too." He started pulling on his sweat pants and Ultra-Power shirt with two graphics, side by side. The one on the left was the woman symbol for the female bathroom with YOUR GIRL under it. On the right, an outline of Ultra-Girl with MY GIRL under it. Maybe a little run might do him some good... The raft starts rebooting as backup generators come on line. As programmed, the highest priority prisoner's cells get power first. Enemies like Count Nefaria that are powerful enough to take on the Avengers solo are too dangerous to leave empowered even a second longer than necessary. Those who are relatively low power, like Devil Spider, will take longer. That was the intent of the plan. Sidewinder returns, in the cell of Devil Spider, and says, "You boss has paid his escape insurance, you are out of here bro." The system has enough power that the escape is recorded, as was intended... Spider-Man is getting updates as he heads towards the Raft, and... ...Rrrrrright. A mile offshore. And nary a single building between him and it. He pauses, then sighs. He still has the Avengers frequency, but was told to stay off it. Membership had its privileges. But... "*click* *static* Uhm...hey. It's your favorite Webhead...I hope. Can, uhm, can anyone give me a ride to the Raft?" It's only a couple of seconds before Ultra-Girl's nanny AI relays the message to her. "On my way, Spidey... Nanny, triangulate our locations and give us an appropriate rendezvous for pickup...", she says, dropping out of supersonic speeds and starting to descend towards the city's coast districts. It's only a few seconds later that each is receiving the location for rendezvous. Flash exits the building, then heads across the street to the park. The park is well lit and he is hoping to get a good ten miles in before she comes back. She will come back, though. He takes a few deep breaths to oxygenate himself, then sets off along the brick path. Things at the raft are going fairly well, the cells are designed for the powers of the person held in them, even if the power is out. For Example, the cell that held The Blaze was lined with space shuttle tile ceramic, able to stand 10000 degrees celcius. As a result, very few criminals have escaped during the brief power outage. The Guardsmen are already working, along with the other guards in their mark V personal armor, to contain those few when Spider-man and Ultra-girl arrive. The one causing most trouble seems to be a guy with Super Strength (He is called Crusader, and he is trying to break into the Armory to recover his weapons). Flash finds his jog rudely interrupted by rings of something appearing about him and dropping to around his arms and legs, rapidly hardening into substance harder than steel... Spidey arrives at the meeting point, looking around. He knew he was going to walk into a proper donnybrook, and yet he cannot turn away. He has to do SOMETHING. He looks up as UG arrives, then holds up his hands for the pickup. Ultra-Girl swoops down, catches Spidey by his wrists, and pulls him up to, basically, cradle him as she flies to the prison. To the nanny AI, she says, "Have you established commlink with the prison guards? Good! Let them know we're on our way!" On their arrival there, she lands, sets Spidey down, and immediately checks in with the guards to see where she's needed... yeah, that's how she asks it: "Where am I needed?", as if Spidey doesn't count. Flash doesn't have the Spider-Sense of his hero, but he does sense something off. However, it's not enough to keep him from being bound in what felt like steel. He looked around, trying to get a glimpse of his captors. Spider-Man would assess the situation, trying to figure out what was going on. He had to learn as much as possible... The Guards says, "We could use help at the Armory, a group lead by Crusader is frying to break in an get the captured villain weapoons stored there. Some other villains with prominant weapons are there as well." Flash sees three men in costume, none particularly familiar. One is dressed in a red and white acrobat's costume with a helmet. Another is wearing some kind of green costume with bronze colored metal rings, the third is carrying some kind of handgun. The First two pick up Flask and the third says, "Don't be stupid, we need you alive we do not need you intact. Cause trouble and I remove a few pieces, capiche?" Spidey looks to the guards, then to UG. "Okay. We'll work on the heavy hitters, unless you need help retaking control of the facility in other areas. If it gets too tough, call for help." He smiles wryly under the mask to UG. "Ready to take care of business?" Ultra-Girl smiles a 'mean' kinda smile. "Yeah...", she says to Spidey, and starts off towards the armory. When she does finally get there, she doesn't even bother to try and size up the situation -- she just walks around the corner and right towards the bad guys. Just like she did with Rhino on the street that one day. Well, whaddaya know, Flash Thinks, he's being kidnapped. Because of UG. Has to be. Their social media presence has been growing, and Ultra-Power has been pushing it forward. So...you can't fight. But you can still watch, and listen, and wait for an opportunity. "I get it...but Ultra is going to take those brass ones you've got and use 'em for DICE." Crusader is, theoretically, on a par with Rhino when it comes to strength, but his power depends on his belief. He once killed Thor (though Odin brought him back from the dead). No one else here is up to his power level without their weapons, though some like Crossbones and Crossfire and Cutthroat are very skillful. The only ones here who might present a problem are Mandrill, with his mutant Pheremones capable of controlling women, and Mentallo, a mid level telepath. Flash's words are relayed to all those using the same frequency as Ultra-girl...though there is enough other transmissions from the guards that there is some possibility of it being lost in the background. Flash is quickly carried into a van and his transmitter taken away as the van drives away... Spider-Man nods. "I'll go after Mentallo, then get Mandrill." He reaches up to his hand, presses a finger against a point just under his ear. In that moment, the N.E.R.V.E. system powers up. It will only run for about 30 minutes, but for that time, no telepath will be able to detect him. He nods to the guards, then heads towards Mentallo's position, getting ready to hand over that reality check he's promising... Ultra-Girl heard it. She knows Flash is in trouble... but she's facing down a bunch bad guys. There's another voice in her head, suggesting that, maybe, just maybe, Flash is more important -- but she shakes it off and goes right after Crusader, to take out the strongest bad guy first, hard and fast. Maybe that way, the others'll just quiet down. Leading with her chin, so as to get him to swing first, she plans to catch his fist in her hand... then use his arm as a hand-hold by which to smash him into the nearest other bad guy. Damn, they found the earbud. Focus. Keep listening, keep watching. Try to remember every detail. It's what Spider-Man would do. He would keep his mouth shut until it was time to needle the ones holding him, but that time wasn't now. But it may be, soon. While in his armor, Crusader is able to stand up to Thor's hammer. Without it, he is not quite as tough. Ultra-girl easily knocks him out...though she may not realize his powers vanish when he is unconscious. Meanwhile, Spiderman makes short work of Mentallo, who relies on his telepathy to defeat foes and is unable to effect the shielded action hero fast enough. The van drives somewhere...not really all that far, before it enters a building and takes a ramp down into underground tunnels...possibly part of one of several abandoned subway lines or possibly one of the rumored shelters build during the height of the cold war. Spidey is REALLY glad for the new system, resolving to build it into the Mark Four suit Kara was working on. He looks to any other cons still around, webbing them up before heading after Mandrill. "I'M COMIN' FOR YA, MONKEY-BOY!" he calls out as he sprints down the hallway. Ultra-Girl, meanwhile... isn't being at -all- nice as she works on taking down the rest of the bad guys. There's even one who throws up his hands and drops to his knees. She punches him the same as the rest, knocking him clean out -- she's in a hurry to wrap this up so she can go back to the city to look for Flash. To her nanny AI, she says, "Do your best to trace where Flash is!" Underground. Flash can hear the echo. He counts off seconds betweeen turns and stops. It helpe to remember it as a football play. 13, jig right. 43, curve left. He repeats them under his breath, trying to harden the memory as much as possible. Madrill, while physically stronger and tougher than average, usually has a bevy of controlled women to do his fighting for him. Unfotunately for him, Ultra-girl has a symbiote that is screening out harmfuul cchemicals before they can damage the host...thus she is uneffected at least long enough for Spiderman to send him into dreamland. The Wall-crawler quickly webs down the escapees, that will hold them long enough for the guards to deal with them. The AI informs Suzy, "Flash was put into a van that was last seen entering a Parking garage on 42nd street." Flash eventually finds the van coming to a halt. He realizes there are more than a dozen people in costumes around, some of which he does not recognize at all, others are vaguely familiar...and one is very familiar: The Hobgoblin!. There is also a man in a lab coat and glasses who looks rather out of place in the assemblage. The last says, "Everyone, Ultra-Girl will be arriving soon, so to your places. Put Mr. Thompson in the holding cell, it is lined with Vibranium and should be difficult for his girlfriend to break into." Flash looks around, working on the faces. The one for the Hobgoblin causes a chill to run down his spine, but he tries not to show fear. "I hope your health benefits package is GREAT and you got your premiums paid up...because you're ALL gonna need 'em!" The last of the bad guys down, one way or another, Ultra-Girl calls out, "Spidey! We gotta get back into town. Now!" To the Nanny AI, she says, "try for cameras or anything else, building plans or anything else... see if you can come up with a guess where in that parking garage they've got him." Spider-Man nods, practically jumping towards UG for her to catch-and-carry. If something happened to Flash, he'd never forgive himself. It would be like Uncle Ben all over again. "Let's GO!" he calls out as he moves. As quickly as she can get to open sky, Ultra-Girl's hurrying to where the AI guides her as Flash's last known location. She doesn't go supersonic, this time... probably because she's carrying Spidey. The AI responds, "I am unable to get any information from the interior of the parking garage that shows the current location of the van in question. The security cameras went blank just before it arrived and it is not parked in any place now shown. However, it is noted in my files that recent work was done at the west end of the lowest level by contractors." Hobgoblin cocks his head, "So...Spiderman is with Ultra-girl tonight. No matter, I have contingencies for dealing with him...Osborn came up with many of those." He, presumably, has some sort of communicator built into his headgear and was getting a report from the Raft. Spidey nods. He would wish he had the new suit, but you fight the battle you have, not the battle you want. "I can use my mask to detect the passage of vehicles. We can use that to follow them!" Ultra-Girl... doesn't take the quiet way into the parking garage. She does, feet-first, right through the roof and down through each level... until she's landing in the area the AI indicated the recent work'd been done in. There, she sets down Spidey and... uses that x-ray vision she's had since her 'friend' came above to try and look ahead. Flash looks around. Can't pick the lock. Can't bend the bars. Okay. Look around the room. See what you can find. What info can you use? Spidey looks around and can soon locate a set of tracks that pull all the way to the edge of a wall...much farther than they should go. Odds are the wall is fake or movable. Ultra-girl can see a tunnel beyond that wall when she looks. The holding area is fairly basic, open enough so Flash can see out, and be seen from outside. Clearly they want him to be seen. A couple of the biggest of the enemies remain beside the cage. One looks like a bear, more or less, the other is huge and thickly built, with some kind os strange almost rubbery skin and no hair. He saw some others move to various places out of sight in the room, though many were not in his sight when they hid. Hobgoblin is setting up some things...one of then seems to be some kind of flickering red light and another is filling the room with some kind of nearly invisible mist. Spider-Man frowns, then says, "That wall is fake. But I'm getting a bad tickle in the back of my Spider-Sense. Nothing concrete, but we should be careful." "You're getting a tickle from way up here?", Ultra-Girl wonders, even as she reaches out to punch a hole in the wall. She then smiles, wolfish, like back when there was a fight to be had at the prison. "Good...!", she adds, heading in through the hole she made... so much for stealth, huh? Flash hears it. He moves to the bars of the cage. He takes a deep breath. "HOBGOBLIN! ANOTHER--RED AND WHITE ACROBAT COSTUME! ANOTHER--GREEN COSTUME, BRONZE RINGS! ANOTHER--HE IS CARRYING A SIDEARM!" Ultra-girl breaks through the wall. She would like to charge ahead, but realizes that there are a maze of tunnels down here, some of which have lead lining (is that old water piper or lead radiation shielding? She can not tell easily), she needs Spidey to locate the way the van went...probably. Also it does not hurt not to get too far ahead when working with a partner. Spidey follows the tracks through several turns before he notices his spider sense is getting dull, muffled. He recognizes the symptoms, Osborn once used a gas that dulled his spider-sense. Hobgoblin must have found the formula, and put enough of it into the air that has slowly been affecting him as he gets closer. If he goes on, he could be without it for a few days... Flash realizes that the guy wiuth the funny skin is breathing through a blowhole located on the back of his head, it might be a weak ppoint where someone much less strong could damage that one. He thinks ofer the others he saw. There was a guy in armor with spine-like projections, someone who looked rather like a giant monkey, another guy in brown armor with some kind of assembly on his forehead and a unicorn head on his chest, a guy in a blue and white suit, a pair of women in snake theme suits, and a guy in some kind of insect theme armor that he recalls seeing. Spider-Man feels the effects, but slips a small rebreather from his belt. It has a 15-minute air supply, but hopefully he can get the stuff out of the air before he has to deal with days of feeling like his head is packed full of cotton. His mask also picks up the presence of vibranium. Spider-Man keys the A venger frequency, then says, "Patch to Wakandan embassy?" Keeping up with Spidey, and looking like she's ready to punch the first person she sees, Ultra-Girl gives him a puzzled look. "Wakanda? That African country? Why're you calling them?", she wonders aloud. Spider-Man pauses. "There's a strong source of vibranium in there." The look on Ultra-Girl's face makes it clear she hasn't really any clue what vibranium is. "Can we just go save Flash, already?", she asks, impatiently... irritably... with a gesture down the passage they're currently in. Flash doesn't know if anyone can hear him. But he doesn't stop, repeating himself every 30 seconds. He doesn't know what else to do, so he keeps calling until someone tries to stop him. "There's something in there fouling up my Spider-Sense. That means they're expecting us...getting ready for us." Spider-Man looks back at the path into the room at the end. That news quiets Ultra-Girl. She looks on edge, still... but that the bad guys are -ready- for them clearly gives her pause. After a bit, she asks, "...do you think that's why they grabbed Flash? To get us here?" Spider-Man nods. "There is a gas that nullifies my Spider-Sense...and they're using it." "I am assuming it must be some form of trouble if I've been contacted on /this/ particular line," Adelah answered the call. "Tell me where to go and I will head out immediately. You can let me know the details along the way," she explained on the line as she moved from her office and to her car, leaving care of the embassy to her aide. Spider-Man tilts his head as the summons is answered. "Home in on my signal. Hobgobloin is here, and they know we're coming." From afar, Ultra-Girl will include that in next pose. "... they sure do", Ultra-Girl says. She's sounding calmer, at least. "... I see cameras and other doo-dads... sensors and things, I think. They know we're here, and they're watching us all the way." "That is not how detail works, but I will do as requested. I will be there shortly. Anything else I should know?" Adelah asked as she sped off in her vehicle to get to the location of the signal. Upon arrival, she looked around with some mild confusion until her search was guided downward. "It's always something underground, isn't it?" She grumbled to herself. "Very well," she complained to herself as she made her way down. "And none of you have anything that can affect the camera? Why not break it?" Spider-Man says with a soft sigh. "I think there are too many, and they know we're here. But if we go in after you show up, maybe we can surprise them with numbers." Ultra-Girl says, "... we're under the city. If I start punching holes in walls down here, I might make buildings fall down or stuff like that... or bust water lines or other important stuff, too. It's a trap, for sure... and they kidnapped my boyfriend as bait." The know you are coming, you know they know, they know you know they know...so the only question is: who has prepared better. The answer will only be known by the outcome. The radiation shielding on the old bomb shelter where the villains are set up blocks Ultra-girl from seeing much before they step into the room. Even though his senses are dulled, Spider-man knows here is a lot of danger ahead. Flash sees very little change in the situation, but the captors seem to be expecting something soon. Adelah finds a lot of info fed to her from a data stream that shows her how to reach the others quickly. Spider-Man looks to Adelah as she arrives. "Okay. I hate the idea, but if we rush in, we can use the element of surprise. They're expecting TWO." Ultra-Girl, having calmed down when the Akbarian nature of the situation was revealed... is suddenly no longer calm when it's clear they're at the place where Flash is held. Without waiting to make a plan with the others, she rushes in, hands balled into fists -- looking for someone to punch. Hard. Spider-Man STARED. "Oh, my God, she just ran in! Okay, then! IMPROVISE, IT IS!" And with that, he propels himself into the room after UG. "I said cameras, not walls--Never mind," Adelah replied, continuing to follow the trail. She thinks she has an idea of what to expect here, at the least and she does believe the word vibranium came up enough times to draw her attention. Anything off the record with that metal needed to be handled before the Hatut zerase got to it first. They aren't known for sparing much if it means acquiring this material. She was suited up and engaged in her stealth, following up behind the two and standing near the door. She didn't wish to enter yet so that she might observe before she acted. Flash is both overjoyed to see Ultra-Girl, and scared that this trap might actually work. He tried vainly to work the door to his cage open SOMEHOW. He couldn't just watch... Ultra-girl enters the room and immediately sees Flash in a cage of som coppery colored metal. She also sees two large goons standing guarding the cage, they seem an obvious target. Spidey follows immediately after, HE is looking around trying to spot things, and knows that there are more people here than are in sight. Adelah enters cautiously, hopefully avoiding notice. The sensors have done thier jobs, at least on Ultra-girl and Spider-man...Adelah is too recently arrived. The moment Ultra-girl breaks into the room the enemy begin acting. The Giant called Cetus has genetics from a Humpback Whale, he starts creating a powerful sound from his Melon. Matching him is the monkey-like man, created with genes from a Howler Monkey and a bat...the room is filled with sounds on a wide range of frequencies and at incredible volume. (Adelah and Flash, both shielded in Vibranium, are safe enough). Ultra-Girl, rushing in, stumbles and falls to the ground as the sonic attack hits her. Hands over her ears, although this doesn't help a bit, she screams in pain... and her costume... seems to shudder and jump about on her skin. (Yes, this would look VERY familiar to anyone who's had this kind of symbiote on them before...) Spider-Man knows that well, even as his own eardrums resonated in painful ways. He switched to the heavy-goo option and fired at the howler's mouth, plugging it with sticky webbing. He winces, aware of the absence of his Spider-Sense but sees another noisemaker, and fires sticky webbing to plug THAT biological bullhorn before his eardrums crack... Less of an alert, and more of... well okay it's an alert. Carol was having a chili dog while hovering at stupidly high altitude. It's one of those things she does. But she was just enjoying the quiet when her comm went off. "Danfers here." she mutters with a mouthful. Meanwhile, Jarvis's cultured british accent comes through. "Ma'am. I have an alert. Junior member Ultra-Girl seems to be in distress. Her biometrics are reading.. unusual. I have a GPS reading from the last ping her comm gave us. Shall I.." And Carol interrupts. "Yes! Transmit coordinates right now please!" she states before turning and wanting to rush off.. but what if she goes the wrong way. Then.. DING! GPS received. She glances at the digital map and then goes to Mach 3... Even behind the door, those sounds are powerful and piercing. Probably best that she stayed guarded behind a wall of sorts, but she needed to act in some form. Not knowing what was going on with Ultra Girl's uniform, she thinks she'll have to figure all that out later. "I suppose that did not work out, hm?" She questioned with the comlink still open. "But there's a way out of this." She decides to give her suit a whirl and heads into the room to deliver one vibranium packed fist towards the whale guy to shut him up for a bit. Admittedly, being directly in all that sound is working a number on her armor. If it keeps up, she imagines it'll overheat and force it to shutdown. Not a good position to be in. Flash saw them come in. Spidey, Ultra, and...who the heck was THAT? Well, they weren't attacking the first two. The cage was dampening what he was saying, but maybe... "Aim for the blowhole!" That came out audibly, but it looked like Flash was yelling at the top of his lungs. Flash might not know this, but the points where the other villains are hiding were chosen to minimize the damage they suffer from the sonic attack. When the Howling Man is silenced (he is clawing at his face to get the webbing off, though he probably can not do that without taking a good share of skin with it), The Blaze pops out of his hiding place and shoots a ball of fire from his pyro-gun at Ultra-girl. Meanwhile the Beetle, the Unicorn, and the Porcupine, all being in armor that has been modified to deal with the sound, step out of hiding and move in to attack Spiderman. Adelah struck at Cetus, but his toughness and his thick layer of insulating blubber seemed to handle the blow pretty well. Then she heard Flash ...though it was hard to distinguish through the background noise. Meanwhile, Carol reaches the garage and quickly follows the holes left by Ultra-girl down to the maze of undreground tunnels. Unfortunately the others did not leave trail markers... Spider-Man looks around, scanning quickly since the Spider-Sense is a wash, and spots Beetle and Unicorn. He reaches out with both arms, each spraying webbing at each man, trying to stop them or slow them down, Unfortunately, that means he misses the quills being fired, taking four in the right arm and side, causing him to roll, trying to extract them. He spotted Porcupine and sighed, trying to pull the quills. Ultra-Girl manages to get to her hands and knees just in time to get nailed by the ball of fire. She cries out in pain, again, her costume still jumping and squirming... to the point that parts of her arms, back, and legs are actually bare from how the suit's pulling away from her skin. It looks almost like she -tried-, and horribly failed, to get out of the way of the ball of fire that hit her, but ended up just hopping forward a few feet, to land flat on her face once again, in the direction of the vibranium cage in which Flash is contained, and some of her costume actually flops... almost splashes... out in front of her, a viscious sort of orange goo that's still squirming, and is actually still attached to her by strands that reach from it to her shoulders, head and arms. As Ultra-Girl struggles to get to her hands and feet once again, the orange and green puddle grows, and more of her skin shows. Spidey would realize... the sonic attacks are forcing the symbiote out of her body... and everyone can see that the symbiote -was- the entirety of her costume, she wasn't wearing anything else. Oops. Adelah couldn't quite make out what was said, but she heard /something/. She was going to have to filter out the noise to figure out what the message was. "I should have just stuck to my original plan." She sighed. This is why she observes. Now that she's in the thick of it, she has to readjust. "Your webbing! Use it to contain whatever that is!" She had thought observing Ultra Girl's costume trying to rip itself off her body. She still had no idea of what it was, but she was becoming progressively more exposed. Her suit was beginning to heat up from all this noise. She still has to figure out something and--"Back away from her!" She fired off a charge towards The Blaze. "There must be something..." She tried to think. The message was still garbled, but she could speed up the process by parsing it all together. "Something about a...blow? Deal a blow to what? A blow...wait..." She's got it! She made quick work of using her tail and swinging it around to anchor the stinger portion onto Cetus to swing up and over so she could put a stopper on the blowhole. Flash looked around. He looked to the cage and the lock. How complicated could the lock be? Something came to him, something about...forcing. forcing SOMETHING. Forcing the lock? No. The lock was too... Forcing the TUMBLERS. Flash pointed to Spider-Man, then pointed to the lock and used the same hand gesture he'd seen Spidey use to shoot webs. Spider-Man pulled the fourth quill, then fired some quick-dry webbing into the lock, jamming one of the quills at the end. Flash set to work, hoping he was right... Spider-man hits the Unicorn easily enough, but the Beetle DODGES, his combat computer is programmed with Spider-man's fighting style, giving him the equivalent of Spider-sense...though only to fight Spider-man. It makes the occasional fights between them nearly even. Beetle spreads his wings and grips the ground with his foot suction cups, his wings flap creating a lous Buzz, aiding in maintaining the sonic attack (though also rendering him less mobile...and creating viscious air currents around the Beetle). The sonic attacks continue to buffet Ultra-girl, who is rapidly losing her symbiotic covering. The Blaze dodges behind cover, and then fires the fireball curving through an arc and mysteriously turning in mid air to fall toward the hurting heroine. Adelah hears the suggestion from Flash, and figures out what was meant...kind of. Stoppering the blow hole is not enough, a humpback whale can hold it's breathe for half an hour..but the tissues inside the blowhole are very sensitive, unlike the rest of Cetus which is heavily armored. Porcupine's quills are much stronger than those of a normal porcupine, being made or a high quality alloy. Under the circumstances, they can make a decent lockpick. Carol follows instructions from Jarvis which will get her through the maze...eventually. Spidey is about to try and hit Beetle, but sees the fireball dropping towards Ultra-Girl, and fires a clutch of webbing at it to snuff it before it hits her. The other hand fires at Blaze, trying to smother those flames with fireproof webbing. The last of Ultra-Girl's costume glops off of her into the large orange-and-green puddle, and her head snaps up suddenly. Seeing a ball of fire coming her way, she gets up on one knee (she hasn't quite realized she's been unclothed, it seems) and crosses her arms on front of her face. The fireball doesn't reach her, of course... and, realizing that the big whale guy's what made her hurt so badly just a bit ago, flies at him the way she's been flying right at anyone and everyone, lately, aiming to simply shoulder-tackle him into submission. Flash WRENCHES the quill, and the lock pops open. He looks around, Unicorn is down. Blaze is about to hate life, the one called Beetle is stationary... Then he sees the one called Porcupine raise his arm ar Spider-Man. NO! Flash suddenly is spurred to action. He runs AT Porcupine, trying to close the distance, Right away, he sees he is not going to make it. But he can still protect the QB. He lunges forward just as Porcupine fires. a Volley of quills fires out at Spider-Man... ...only to see that Flash is blocking. Flash's entire lower body suddenly becomes a pincushion, and for a moment, his scream of pain is louder than anything. "Bast's whiskers..." Adelah exasperated. This fight was getting out of hand. "Your webbing could provide some much needed coverage!" She remarked again. Sure, there's nothing wrong with fighting naked and it could even be empowering. Heck, she's done it before, but not...around other people. Focusing back on her enemy, fist deep in a blowhole, she decided to summon her claws out of her suit to start maiming the tissues within. "I need you to be quiet so I can think!!" She shouted in frustration, not realizing Ultra Girl is now up on her feet and prepping to tackle her target until a little too late. She was still hooked into this guy, after all, but maybe there might be a boon in this. The energy could be stored in her suit to use later. The orange-and-green puddle on the floor, meanwhile, still shivers and shudders, as the sonic attack continues. A pseudopod reaches up and out, vaguely in Flash's direction... but only makes it about six inches out from the edge of the puddle... and slowly draws back into the main mass. Another pseudopod reaches out in another direction... and this one actually separates, landing in its own puddle about six inches out... but this puddle loses its color, going gray and still... and looking very much as if its drying out, the surface layer of it cracking like mud baking in the sun. Spider-man throw webbing at the fireball and other webbing at the Flame Gun, of course this leaves him with the Beetle's wind and sound attack and the Porcupine attacking him and himself having to aim his webbing, only Flash's intervention prevents him from becoming an instant pincushion... Ultra-Girl tries to tackle Cetus, only to find herself blocked by Bruin, Bruin has little going for him, but strength and toughness, but he has enough of those to withstand the attack. Well, at least the first attack. Adelah starts clawing into the sensitive nasal tissues of the whale-man, who suddenly produces an even louder noise...a tremendous scream that rattles the walls. Meanwhile, A trap-door opens and Dr. Malus steps over to the puddle. The opening of the trap door is a signal tp stop the noise, and so Beetle launches into an attack on Spider-man, releasing his grip on the floor and being propelled forward with great speed. Dr. Malus steps into the puddle, which is drawn onto him as the sound fades, seeking shelter to recover from the assault. The end of the sound attack is the signal for the rest of the villains to come out of the woodwork. Devil-Spider throws a web at Adella from his cobweb collector. Tumbler, Viper, Diamondback, and Steeplejack launch attacks on Ultra-Girl. The others try to select a target and enter the fray as well...though some hold back. Carol hears the titanic scream, along with the shout from Ultra-girl and finds the way ahead finally clear... With Jarvis's assistance, Carol was able to navigate her way through said maze. She had one or two abortive stops and backtracking experiences. But it's not long before she starts to zero in on the source of the extreme sonics. But moments later, a part of the wall explodes outward from the impact of Captain Marvel's passage. Chunks of the wall shoot outward almost like a fragmentation explosion. Her senses aren't like Flash's or Spidey's.. but they are accelerated. And her seventh sense helps here and there. That last one is why she already has a target when she bursts through the wall. She lands on one knee with both hands outstretched, clenched in fists... photonic blasts leaping from both hands towards the source of the sonics. She's hoping she can convince the fire kid to shoot her. Well...THIS got busy in a hurry. He is about to react when he hears Flash. He turns to see Flash crawling on his belly like a reptile. He saw the quills EVERYWHERE on Flash's legs. For one heart-stopping moment, he realizes Flash's football career is over. To protect him. He turns on Porcupine, and suddenly the man realizes he has made a horrible mistake. "YOU BASTARD!* Spider-Man yells, and his fist SLAMS into Porc's head with a little too much strength, letting Porcupine know what it's like to be hit by a truck. In the FACE. Four on one, and starting to finally realize that she's naked and nowhere near as strong as she was just a little bit ago, Ultra-Girl gets pummeled. Hard. She takes it well, but she's unable to keep the attacks from landing, and ends up thrown against a wall. She falls to her knees, back to the wall, doing her best to cover herself with her arms and hands... and breathing heavily after having so suddenly gotten beaten up so soundly. One hand comes up, though the fist it forms trembles, as she tries to get to her feet to defend herself against the four who're advancing on her. Flash didn't think there was this much pain in the whole world. He crawled, hating himself but unable to get to his feet. It would have been easier if he felt the pain in his legs, but the ball of fire stopped at his hips. Below that...he couldn't feel anything at all. He looked over his shoulder and saw Spider-Man was still up. He sighed. At least he had that... Adelah wasn't beyond killing something, though she tried hard to abide by the 'rules' of engagement. Namely, not killing an opponent, but she had exceptions that she felt were necessary. Like this situation. She began clawing further into the hole to stir up some upset and only resulted in making the whale screech louder. She figured she could take this if it meant she could end the problem. But alas, it seems it wasn't meant to be as she's sent crashing and flung with the beast from the timely entrance of Carol. Her suit had stored up just enough that she thinks she might be able to wax the guy. Being stuck didn't mean she was completely out of the fight, yet. Aiming her arm cannons, she focused them into a small area so she could send a blast directly into the body of this mutant and pump out all the reserve energy into a full beam through his body. Captain Marvel bursts into the room, firing a blast of energy at Cetus, who is already been badly hurt. Porcupine's armor was always second rate, it is one reason he was never a first rank villain. He is knocked out by the blow...though fortunately not decapitated like an unarmored man might have been. None of those facing Ultra-girl is her level of power, but between them and how damaged she was already she is not doing well. Adelah releases her stored energy through her arm cannons, one of which happens to be inside Cetus. The genetic construct gives a mighty jerk as it's lungs are flash fried, smashing back against the vibranium cage in the hopes of crushing it;s tormentor rven as it dies. Dr. Malus struggles to control the Symbiote, seeking to be the dominant member of the pair. He is already gaining some aspects, as he lashes out at Carol with a green tentacle... Several of the others take that as a cue to attack Carol, Devil-spider shoots a powerful paralytic dart at her. Bruin tries to reach her for a physical attack. Crosscut attacks her with knives, The Ringer tries to hold her with his rings... Spider-Man turns to look at Malus. He can see it clearly...maybe too clearly. It's a symbiote, like the one that had latched on to him. If Malus is able to control it... Spider-Man suddenly launches at Malus, a red-and-blue missile ready to knock his block off. He has to put him out of action before it can bond successfully. fwip! is the sound of the Venom tendril snaking around Carol's neck. "Oh. Venom. Or a wannabe." mutters Carol. Then she is shot with the dart. She doesn't evade. Maybe she's a bit cocky. But her skin is super tough. Nothing short of ultra high speed depleted uranium rounds are going to pierce it. The dart delivers its paylod, and the tiny sharpness of it gets -partially- through her flesh. She slaps at it like a moquito... but half human, half kree biology is not quite the same as all human. She is highly resistant to toxins. It may get to her... eventually, in large enough doses. But then Bruin and Crosscut strike at her. She reaches her hands up and catches Bruin's fist and Crosscut's knifeblade in her hands. A simple twist of each wrist sends them flying to either side. Then she leaps and comes to land before the newly symbioted Malus. "You know. I'm really tired of this suit taking people over, using them... enabling their bad behavior." Her hands clench up into fists even as she glances towards Ultra-Girl. "You got this Suze." she says. "I know you're strong enough. So just hold on for a few more seconds..." and her fists are surrounded with a corona of what looks almost like sunlight... a heat haze spreading from them even as she turns back to face Malus. As she does that, he lashes out at her and tendrils wrap about her left ankle, her waist, her neck.. even as his fist strikes her in the face. Sure, this might bruise. Might leave a mark. Carol barely flinches. And then that aura on her fists erupts over her entire body. Superheated photonic plasma leaking from her flesh and aura. She lashes out with her own fists, lightning fast and the heat on her makes the suit peel back from her. She grabs into Malus and then twists, heaving as she hurls him away from the suit... a suit that she kicks away from her only to bounce it off of one wall where it comes to splat onto the floor only inches from Flash. Ultra-Girl... isn't a chump. Yeah, there's four of them... yeah, she's naked... but she's still stronger and tougher than any of them. She does her best to fend off, or just shrug off, their attacks... and then hits one of the four, not caring which one it is, full on... and sets to working her way through her opponents. She hears Carol's words and they spur her on to keep fighting. The symbiote, separated from Malus, lands in a puddle near Flash. Some bits of it splatter away from the main mass, and those bits go gray and dry as they settle on the floor. The main mass of the symbiote goes back to the orange-and-green that it'd been while on Ultra-Girl... and then, slowly, tremblingly, a pseudopod reached out towards Flash... and when it makes contact with his skin, the symbiote covers him, mostly over the area of his body where Porcupine's quills have pierced and wounded the man. Only once it's completely on Flash's body does it seem to absorb into him. Flash was half out of his mind with pain, with fear. Did Spider-Man ever deal with this? God, it PARALYZED you. Then he realized he was probably never going to walk again. He was, oddly enough, all right with that. If he lost his legs and Spider-Man lived...well, there were worse reasons to lose a football career. Then he heard a voice. It was alien, yet familiar at the same time. It asked a question in no language he could comprehend. "Please...God, don't let me die on this concrete floor," he moaned, delirious with pain. God may have heard him, but the symbiote did, too, and it responded. Adelah was now beginning to pick up on what that thing was. It was a living creature, well, if it could be said that it is. Whatever the case, she needed to be freed from this whale. The problem is she's being flung around and bashed up against the vibranium cage and her suit is nearly on the edge of being shut down. Plus side is that she's storing up energy once again, but too much and it'd burst outward uncontrollably. She proceeded to remove herself from Cetus, landing on the ground and attempting to assess the situation. She couldn't secure that cage, right now. It'd have to wait. This symbiote was much more troubling. "Don't give in yet! "You must fight through this!" She spoke to the Flash. He's not out of this fight, but truly, she didn't want that symbiote getting into any other people. Though, she had no real way of keeping it away from him. All she knows at the moment is that it's becoming a part of him and she isn't certain of what to expect. Especially if it tried to fuse with Dr. Malus. Its choices are questionable and that was enough for her to deem it necessary to be contained. Spider-man attacks the Symbiote-linked Malus, who manages to block most of the attack, however that leaves him open for the attack by Carol Danvers. The Bonding not being complete, Malus was separated from the Symbiote, which sought out a host it was familiar with, and one that needed him to survive as he heeded a true host. Ultra-Girl is turning the tide against her foes, but someone else has returned to the fray. The Hobgoblin throws a grende, one the releases what looks like smoke...but this smoke in the relatively confined space weakens Spider-man's webbing so the Howling Man and Unicorn can get free. Unicorn fires an energy blast at the roof, and Howling Man releases a howl on a pitch that causes that roof to start to collapse. As the roof caves in, the villains seek out pre-planed exit routes... Spider-Man looks up at the roof. Okay. He's had enough of ceilings that would not stay ceilings. Spidey fires in a wide spread, coating the panels with webbing to hold them up. Ten concentrated seconds of firing webs, and then the cartidges are dry. He looks to Flash, who is writhing on the floor, then runs to him. He is aware the quills seem to be falling out of his legs, which appear to be moving slightly. Even slightly is enough. "Flash...? FLASH!" Spider-Man blurts out. "C'mon,SAY something!" Just a hunch. That's what she used to call it. Now Carol is already looking upwards as things start to collapse. She lifts into the air and presses her back against the ceiling. "EVERYONE OUT!" she yells. "I can hold it for a while, but not sure how long! Suze! GO!!" she calls out, knowing Ultra-Girl is about to try to come help. "That is an order!" She figures she'll survive the collapse. She's not sure if anyone else could right now. Ultra-Girl, already off the floor and heading to the ceiling, hears Carol's words and changes where she's going. Landing on the floor next to Flash, she says, "I've got him, Spidey... let's get out of here!", as she, carefully as she can, scoops her boyfriend up off the floor and flies out the hole Carol made in the wall when she came in. Flash's eyes open, and they are clear. He looks from Spider-Man to Ultra-Girl, then to the others. He looked back to UG, then says, "Hey, S...Ultra. You all right?" He looks around. "Is everyone all right?" Then Carol's words get through to him, and he tries to get to his feet. He feels strange and his coordination seems to be scrambled. Then UG scoops him up and he smiles at that familiar feeling. "Our heroine," he says dreamily. Spider-Man doesn't know what's really going on, but it is DEFINITELY time to go. One webline later, he is following Ultra-Girl and her cargo. Adelah was fairly displeased. This whole place was falling apart and she was going to have to send a recovery team through all this mess to get the vibranium cage that was left here. Such is the way things are. She left the area and with some energy to spare. Her suit was hotter than she wanted it to be and she needed to let it cool off. Exiting from that facility and out into the open is the best thing to happen to her. "I know you tried your best to maintain the integrity of the building, but there was no way it was going to hold in that condition. Too many walls lost..." She stated with some mild disdain. "But, the good news is that it appears your friend has lived through his brush with death..." She looks him over. "Will you not seek medical attention? You did take quills and a...thing in. What was that slime, anyway?" Between the webbing (even though the smoke weakens that) and the might of Captain Marvel, the roof is held up long enough for everyone to get out (except the dying Cetus, who gets a massive funeral cairn). Carol releases the roof and flies out as the room falls apart behind her. Fortunately the collapse does not spread far...at least not yet. Someone will have to make sure the buildings and streets above this area are not damaged in the longer term. The Wakandan Recovery tean can probably do that...though possibly if the the vibranium cage preventing more total collapse. Either way, there is nothing to be done here, right now.